Apparatus and methods for stimulating reservoirs using fluids containing nano/micro heat transfer elements

Patent metadata

Field	Value
Publication number	US-9581001-B2
Application number	US-201313970335-A
Country	US
Kind code	B2
Filing date	Aug 19, 2013
Priority date	Aug 19, 2013
Publication date	Feb 28, 2017
Grant date	Feb 28, 2017

Abstract

In one aspect, a method of stimulating flow of a fluid present in a subsurface reservoir to a wellbore is provided, which method, in one non-limiting embodiment, may include providing a working fluid that includes a heated base fluid and heated nanoparticles, wherein the nanoparticle have a core and a shell; supplying the working fluid into a selected section of the subsurface reservoir; allowing the heated nanoparticles to transfer heat to the fluid in the subsurface reservoir to stimulate flow of the fluid from the reservoir to the wellbore.

First claim

The invention claimed is:

1. A method of stimulating flow of a fluid present in a subsurface reservoir into a wellbore in the reservoir, the method comprising:
heating water at a surface location to a selected temperature above a temperature for forming a steam;
heating nanoparticles at the surface location, the nanoparticles having a core and a shell to store energy in the core;
mixing the steam with the heated nanoparticles at the selected temperature at a surface location to provide a working fluid, wherein the selected temperature is above a melting point of the cores of the nanoparticles and the melting point is above a downhole temperature of the reservoir;
injecting the working fluid into the subsurface reservoir; and
allowing the nanoparticles in the working fluid to transfer heat to the subsurface reservoir to stimulate flow of the fluid in the reservoir into the wellbore.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing heated nanoparticles comprises heating the nanoparticles to a temperature sufficient to melt the cores of the nanoparticles.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the core comprises bismuth and the shell comprises a metal having a melting point greater than the temperature of the working fluid.

4. The method of claim 1 , wherein the core comprises a material selected from a group consisting of: bismuth; a eutectic salt; a polymer, tin, lead, a salt hydrate, a wax, an oil, a fatty acid and a polyglycol.

5. The method of claim 4 , wherein the shell comprises a material selected from a group consisting of: a metal; carbon; a polymer; silica; graphene; graphite; a diamond-like carbon; carbon nitride; boron nitride; iron; nickel; cobalt and zinc; a metal oxide; a nitride; and a carbide.

6. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the heated nanoparticles comprises:
providing nanoparticles of a core material having a melting point;
providing a shell material that decomposes at a temperature below the melting point of the core material; and
heating a combination of the nanoparticles and the shell material to a temperature between the decomposition temperature of the shell material and the melting point of the core material to form the nanoparticles.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein providing the heated nanoparticles comprises:
providing nanoparticles of bismuth;
providing triethylaluminum; and
heating nanoparticles of bismuth and triethylaluminum to a temperature above a decomposition temperature of triethylaluminum and below the melting point of bismuth to form nanoparticles having bismuth core and aluminum shell.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the wellbore is a production wellbore and wherein the method further comprises:
forming at least one injection wellbore at a selected distance from the production wellbore; and
supplying the working fluid into the injection wellbore under pressure.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the working fluid comprises up to about 10% of the nanoparticles by weight.

10. The method of claim 1 , wherein the core has a diameter between 1 nm to 40 nm and the shell has a thickness of at least 1 nm.

11. The method of claim 1 further comprising producing the fluid from the wellbore to a surface location.

12. The method of claim 11 , wherein producing the fluid from the wellbore to the surface location comprises providing a production string in the wellbore that includes one or more flow control devices that control flow of fluid from the reservoir into the wellbore.

13. A system for enhancing flow of a fluid present in a subsurface reservoir to a wellbore, comprising:
a nanoparticle supply unit providing heated nanoparticles having a core and a shell at to store energy in the core;
a generator for heating water at a surface location to a selected temperature above a temperature for forming a steam;
a mixer at a surface location that mixes the heated nanoparticles with the steam at the selected temperature at the surface location to provide a working fluid, wherein the selected temperature is above a melting point of the cores of the nanoparticles and the melting point is above a downhole temperature of the subsurface reservoir;
a wellbore that supplies the working fluid from the surface location into a selected zone in the reservoir to transfer heat stored in the nanoparticle to the fluid in the reservoir to heat the fluid in the reservoir to facilitate flow of such fluid from the reservoir to the wellbore.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein the working fluid is heated to a temperature sufficient to melt the core in the shell to cause the core to retain thermal energy.

15. The system of claim 13 further comprising an injection wellbore spaced from the wellbore and wherein the second unit supplies the working fluid under pressure to the injection wellbore.

16. The system of claim 13 , wherein the core comprises a material selected from a group consisting of: bismuth; a eutectic salt; and a polymer.

17. The system of claim 16 , wherein the shell comprises a material selected from a group consisting of: a metal; carbon; and a polymer.

18. The system of claim 13 , wherein core has melting point lower than temperature of the heated working fluid and the shell has a melting point greater than the temperature of the heated working fluid.

19. The system of claim 13 , wherein the nanoparticles are formed by: providing a shell material that decomposes at a temperature below the melting point of the core material; and heating a combination of the nanoparticles and the shell material to a temperature between the decomposition temperature of the shell material and the melting point of the core material to form the nanoparticles.

20. The system of claim 13 , wherein the wellbore includes a production string that has one or more flow control devices that control flow of the fluid from the reservoir into the wellbore.

Assignees

• Mazyar Oleg A
• Richard Bennett M
• Baker Hughes Inc

Inventors

• Mazyar Oleg A
• Richard Bennett M

Classifications

• E21B43/24 Primary

  using heat, e.g. steam injection · CPC title

• E21B43/25

  Methods for stimulating production {(by vibrating earth formations E21B43/003)} · CPC title

• C09K8/92

  characterised by their form or by the form of their components, e.g. encapsulated material (C09K8/70 takes precedence) · CPC title

• E21B43/2408

  SAGD in combination with other methods · CPC title

• C09K8/592

  Compositions used in combination with generated heat, e.g. by steam injection · CPC title